2012 TC Academics
Teachers College, Columbia University
Teachers College Columbia University

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Erika Levy

Professional Background

Educational Background

  • Ph.D. Speech and Hearing Sciences, CUNY Graduate Center
  • M.A. (CCC-SLP) Speech-Language Pathology, Lehman College
  • M.A. Linguistics, New York University
  • B.A.  Psychology, Wesleyan University

 

Scholarly Interests

Cross-language speech production and perception, communication disorders in bilinguals, accent and intelligibility in speech-language pathology, treatment efficacy in dysarthria due to cerebral palsy

Selected Publications

professional presentations

publications

Peer-reviewed papers (published and accepted for publication)
Levy, E. S., Ramig, L. O., & Camarata, S., M. (in press). The effects of two speech interventions on speech function in pediatric dysarthria. Journal of Medical Speech-Language Pathology.
Altman, C., Goral, M., & Levy, E. S. (2012). Integrated narrative analysis in multilingual aphasia: The relationship among narrative structure, grammaticality and fluency. Aphasiology, 26, 1029-1052. DOI: 10.1080/02687038.2012.686103

Levy, E. S., & Crowley, C. J. (2012). Beliefs regarding the impact of accent within speech-language pathology practice areas. Communication Disorders Quarterly. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/1525740112446851

Shafiro, V. S., Levy, E. S., Khamis-Dakwar, R., & Kharkhurin. A. (2012). Perceptual confusions of American English vowels and consonants by native English and native Arabic bilinguals. Language and Speech. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/0023830912442925

Neumann-Werth, Y., Levy, E. S., & Obler, L. K. (2012). Hemispheric processing of vocal emblem sounds. Neurocase. doi: 10.1080/13554794.2012.667122

Deal-Williams, V., Crowley, C., Levy, E. S., & Mahendra, N. (in press). The clinical education of students with non-native accents. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association [Professional Issues Statement].
 
Levy, E. S., Goral, M., Castelluccio de Diesbach, C., & Law II, F. F. (2011). Stronger accent following a stroke-the case of a trilingual with aphasia. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 1-16. Advance online publication.doi: 10.3109/02699206.2011.570408
 
Levy, E. S. & Crowley, C. J. (2011). Policies and practices regarding students with accents in speech-language pathology training programs. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 1-10. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/1525740111409567  
 
Levy, E. S. & Law II, F. F. (2010). Production of French vowels by American-English learners of French: Language experience, consonantal context, and the perception-production relationship. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 128, 1290-1305.
 
Goral, M., Levy, E. S., & Kastl, R. (2010). Cross-language treatment generalization: A case of trilingual aphasia. Aphasiology, 24, 170-187.
 
Levy, E. S. (2009a). On the assimilation-discrimination relationship in American English adults' French vowel learning. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 126, 2670-2682.
 
Strange, W., Levy, E. S., & Law II, F. F. (2009). Cross-language categorization of French and German vowels by nave American listeners. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 126, 1461-1476.
 
Levy, E. S. (2009b). Language experience and consonantal context effects on perceptual assimilation of French vowels by American-English learners of French. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 125, 1138-1152.
 
Levy, E. S. & Strange, W. (2008). Perception of French vowels by American English adults with and without French language experience. Journal of Phonetics, 36, 141-157.
 
Strange, W., Weber, A., Levy, E. S., Shafiro, V., Hisagi, M., & Nishi, K. (2007). Acoustic variability within and across German, French, and American English vowels: Phonetic context effects. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 122, 1111-1129. 
 
Goral, M.., Levy, E. S., Obler, L. K., & Cohen, E(2006). Cross-language lexical connections in the mental lexicon: Evidence from a case of trilingual aphasia. Brain and Language, 98, 235-247.
 
Goral, M., Levy, E. S., & Obler, L. K. (2002). Neurolinguistic aspects of bilingualism. International Journal of Bilingualism, 6, 351-380.
 
 
Books
 
Levy, E. S. (2007). Baby's First Words (in French). Republished as Baby's First Words ( in Spanish), Baby's First Words (in Italian), and Baby's First Words (in Chinese): Series of 4 books and CDs. NY: Living Language, Random House. (Original version published as Baby's First Steps, 2001).
 
 
Book chapter

Levy, E. S., Goral, M., & Obler, L. K. (2006). Doghouse/chien maison/niche: Compounds in bilinguals. In G. Libben and Jarema, G. (Eds.), The Representation and Processing of Compound Words (pp.124-144). NY: Oxford University Press.

Centers and Projects

Speech Production & Perception Lab
Website: http://www.tc.columbia.edu/centers/spplab

Research

Research in the Speech Production and Perception Laboratory examines speech performance in individuals with and without communication disorders, with special emphasis on intelligibility and accent. Under the direction of Erika S. Levy, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and trilingual speech-language pathologist, this lab is affiliated with the Speech & Language Pathology program in Teachers College's Department of Biobehavioral Sciences.

Goals

A goal of our research is to better understand patterns of speech production and perception by second-language learners and by individuals with communication disorders. We aim to recreate natural speech patterns as much as possible within the laboratory setting in order to learn about real-world speech production and perception and their disorders. A theme of this research has been the investigation of utterances in continuous speech, in which neighboring vowels and consonants affect each other's pronunciation, as opposed to isolated speech utterances. Our work informs educational and therapeutic approaches to speech and language learning and disorders in monolingual and multilingual populations.

Examples of the questions we ask are how children with communication disorders and second-language learners perceive and produce “clear speech,” an intelligibility-enhancing style of speech. Different speech styles are also of interest as possible tools for increasing intelligibility in individuals with motor speech disorders. Planned projects include an examination of interventions for increasing intelligibility in children with dysarthria due to cerebral palsy. A goal of this research is to determine where difficulties lie in order to help pave the way for improvement in the efficacy of speech-language pathology service provision.

Selected Projects

  1. Production and perception of clear speech by children with communication disorders and second-language learners
  2. Survey of beliefs and practices regarding speech-language pathology students with accents
  3. Examination of reported change in accent following a stroke in a trilingual individual with aphasia

Evaluation Services

We perform research on speech treatment for children with dysarthria due to cerebral palsy (through the Center for Cerebral Palsy Research). To see if your child qualifies for a speech treatment study please contact Prof. Erika Levy at elevy@tc.columbia.edu.



Erika Levy appeared in the following articles:

New Faces (9/7/2005)